


Fighter

by dinahlaurel



Category: Arrow (TV 2012), The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-18
Updated: 2016-08-18
Packaged: 2018-08-09 15:11:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,183
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7806727
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dinahlaurel/pseuds/dinahlaurel
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Robert Queen is back, Oliver isn’t. The knot she knows so well by now moves back to her stomach, but it seems to calm down. Disappear, almost. She’ll learn later that was only temporary. She can’t dwell on loss, on grief, not anymore. There’s something more important out there now, there’s people who need her.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Fighter

**Author's Note:**

> ( Written pre-Black Siren reveal. Earth-2 Dinah Laurel Lance's story. )

He grabs both of her hands in his and hesitates, giving her a nervous look that makes her heart stop. _“_ Come with me,” he whispers instead, rambling on and on about a boat trip– and she sighs in relief. She’s too young, after all, they both are. And a proposal would just ruin things.   She shakes her head and chuckles; she can’t leave the flower shop alone and she’s sure, even if he laughs, that Sara won’t make it through a whole week without her on her own. And it’s only a few days later, when they’re saying their goodbyes by the shore that she feels a knot in the pit of her stomach. 

Nervous, _scared_.

She ignores it, the aftertaste of his lips lingering on her mouth as she waves her hand. 

That night, there’s a storm. And she wakes up in the middle of the night, that knot back again, in her throat now. Nervous, scared. It takes her twelve hours or so, but when the news hit her finally she understands why.  Sara wraps a blanket on her shoulders and runs her hand through her hair, soothingly. “He’ll be okay,” she mumbles, “he always comes back to you.” And even though she nods, desperate to believe her, there’s that knot again reminding her that he might not be. That he might be gone forever, and she’s too young, still. 

Too _young_ to feel this angry, this sad. 

The blue uniform and shiny new badge in Sara’s outfit looks like a joke now, like it’s laughing back at her because it doesn’t matter if she’s a cop, if their dad is too, if she’s studying to become a lawyer – the law can’t fix this. They can’t fix any of it. No matter how much they all they all always trusted it could.

It takes her a week or two, but after locking herself away for so long she finally decides to agree and take on that offer she got when she was young and a kid in her class… _well_ , she’d rather not think about that incident. Not now, at least. Her mother smiles and nods, sliding her a card over the table and insisting that she _knew_ , sooner or later, she’d do this. That it would help her get her mind off of the Queens and their accident, that Ted will love to see her too.  Nothing makes much sense at first, not her mother’s words, not her trainer’s enthusiasm, but she follows. Kicking and punching. Sweating the anger and frustration and sadness away– and by the end of the first trimester, she can feel it in her bones, she can hear her mother’s words echoing in her mind over and over. 

**She understands now**. It takes her another week or so fighting out there, getting used to the new feeling of freedom and safety that studying law, having two cops and an ex superhero in her family never gave her, but she does. And by the time the news hit, they can’t phase her.

_Robert Queen is back, Oliver isn’t._

The knot she knows so well by now moves back to her stomach, but it seems to calm down. Disappear, almost. She’ll learn later that was only temporary.  She can’t dwell on loss, on grief, not anymore. There’s something more important out there now, there’s people who need her.  And besides… Oliver would be proud. After all, he always said that he used to have a crush on her mother and those fishnets she used. It’s ironic, really, that by the time a guy in a green hood and bow and arrow shows up in the city, trying to fight, she can’t help but think of him. Him and _his stupid obsession with that color_ , like a kid picking a favorite food and refusing to eat anything else but.

He fights with her sometimes, helping her clean up the streets of Star City just like the guy in the metal hat and lighting shirt does back at Central City, and in a week or two of fighting side by side, she can tell this isn’t going to end well. He’s too reckless, too selfish. He has a mission, whatever it is. And while he helps out, his eyes are somewhere else. _A target._ He gets captured by the cops outside the Merlyn household a month later, and Sara tells her the news before they hit the papers but she knows already.

_Robert Queen is dead._

And when a new hooded archer shows up in the city, so does that knot in her stomach.  He’s neverthere when she needs a partner, _not the way Robert was_ , but somehow he’s always just in time to help. He’s more precise, more calculated, more confident too. And Ted insists he’s seen his style before.  _“_ It’s the League, Dinah.” He nods, tells her a story about immortal beings and a group of assassins that if she was younger, more naive and inexperienced, she’d think it’s just that.  _A story._

Then it all happens in what feels like a second to her. That knot is back in her throat now. _Nervous, scared_. And she’s surrounded. They’re everything Ted said they would be and more— their technique is impeccable, precise, just like the new guy. They move in groups, never alone, and she might be good but _oh_ , there’s so much a girl and her sonic scream can take before she’s on her knees; a sword in her throat and a question they ask echoing over and over in her mind.  **“Where is Oliver Queen?”**

She laughs even though she shouldn’t, her body too weak to keep fighting a dozen trained assassins. Waiting, charging. The new guy shows up just in time, as always, and he shouts asking them to let her go.  She laughs again and suddenly— **everything makes sense** , just like it did a year ago when she started training with Ted.

_Oliver Queen is alive._

The knot in her throat leaves as she opens her mouth, that scream she used to be so scared of when she was a kid, now her most _powerful_ weapon. She stands up. Ready, recharged. She fights side by side with him, nothing but silence surrounding them— and once it’s all over, she rushes to his arms so sure, so confident, that it almost feels like last year never happened. **Like it was all a dream.** A nightmare, at times.

**“Pretty bird,”** he whispers hugging her back, wincing in pain so dramatically that she knows he’s just acting up, trying to get her worried for a little bit of extra attention. She knows him all too well, even after all this time.  ‘ He always comes back to you.’  She smiles, remembering Sara’s words, and his lips crash against hers. _He’s different now, but so is she._ And yet, no matter what, he still tastes the same as he did that afternoon right by the shore. The afternoon that her whole life changed. “So… about those fishnets.”

She laughs and shakes her head, “I knew you’d like them.”


End file.
